Two Foreigners Will Face Lay Jury Trials

[Mulboyne]

Japan Today: Two foreign defendants among first cases to be tried under new lay jury system
Prosecutors nationwide indicted on Friday nine criminal suspects, including two murder suspects, to be tried under the newly introduced lay jury system, bringing the total number of such cases to 13. A day after the introduction of the system, the two murder suspects were indicted by Tokyo and Fukuoka prosecutors. Suspects in other serious crimes such as robbery resulting in injuries or attempted arson were indicted the previous day, but murder suspects were not included. Also included in the 13 cases were a 21-year-old male university student of Mexican nationality and a 29-year-old female office worker of Canadian nationality, who were both indicted by Chiba prosecutors over drug smuggling. Lay jury trials for the 13 cases can begin as early as late July if each case has little to argue over and its pretrial agreement procedures end swiftly. Under the lay jury system that kicked off Thursday, jurors will engage in the process of determining the verdict, and in the case of a guilty verdict, what kind of sentence the person should be given.